If you've ever heard the Berlin guitarist Arne Jansen, you'll know how difficult it is to forget his special sound. That passionate rummaging around in the warm diversity of the electric guitar, where bashful understatement mixes with playful sensuality. The humaneness become sound that always searches for what is special in the commonplace, exudes serenity and yet never itself comes to rest because its quest never ceases.

Dutch violinist Janine Jansen has made some unorthodox recordings (check out her Vivaldi Four Seasons sometime), but here, in a work in which proportion and technique are exquisitely balanced, she plays it straight with impressive results. Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2, composed in 1935 just before his return to the Soviet Union from France, has always been a popular repertory item, but Jansen's reading, ably accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, has a pearly quality throughout, a kind of bright ease, that comes only at the highest levels of technique.

As a guitarist, Arne Jansen has never thought in genre categories. The ECHO prizewinner has already played a special role, particularly in Germany, with his first two trio albums. Melodic compositions, transparent arrangements and a warm guitar sound have been his trademark to this day. On his new album Nine Firmaments there are many “songs without words” and some of them, quickly and without any detours, make their way into our consciousness where they seem to have always felt at home. Jansen prefers clear lines and avoids unnecessary exhibitionism.

A secret life is a work of exquisite poise, in the spirit of the ambient albums that early ultravox member John Foxx recorded with Harold Budd, translucence and drift music. This album has a Budd connection, as it happens - it was after performing with him in 2005 that Foxx and former japan drummer Steve Jansen began collaborating together, but the tracks they worked on remained unfinished until producer steve D'Agostino completed them last year.

A Kscope label CD release of Lumen, a recording of the solitary Steve Jansen/Richard Barbieri concert from 1st November 1996. Performing songs from the duo's Stone To Flesh, Stories Across Borders and Beginning To Melt albums, the show was recorded at the Milky Way as part of the famous Dutch Magazine OOR's 25th anniversary celebrations. Jansen and Barbieri were joined on stage by Mick Karn and Steven Wilson.

Originally released in 1995, taking in elements of epic Art Rock and Ambient atmospherics, 'Stone To Flesh' comprises a diverse collection of pieces that vary from the dynamic to the hauntingly meditative. Featuring guest performances from Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson and Colin Edwin, and harmonica great, Mark Feltham (Talk Talk, The The etc). 2015 Kscope label digipak CD version with bonus track.

Eschewing its usual heavy orchestral sound in favor of a more stripped-down instrumentation, Dutch violinist Janine Jansen's second album offers a fresh interpretation of one of the most performed classical works, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. The 2005 follow-up to her Barry Wordsworth-conducted debut, the subtle but passionate renditions of the "La Primavera," "L'estate," "L'autunno," and "L'inverno" concertos are performed with a sparse, eight-piece ensemble including Lithuanian violinist Julian Rachlin, her cellist brother Maarten, and harpsichordist father Jan.

Released to highly positive reviews in 2007, Slope was the debut album from Steve Jansen (Japan / Rain Tree Crow). Exhibiting a bold combination of inventive rhythms, intricate programming and emotive vocal performances, the album features guest contributions from an impressive line-up including David Sylvian, Tim Elsenburg (Sweet Billy Pilgrim), Joan Wasser (Joan As Policewoman), Thomas Feiner, Anja Garbarek, Nina Kinert, and Theo Travis. As Jansen explains, "With Slope, I approached composition attempting to avoid chord and song structures and the usual familiar building blocks. Instead, in an attempt to deviate from my own trappings as a musician, I wanted to piece together unrelated sounds, music samples, rhythms and 'events'."